Pascal Meurs takes a look at each team's advanced statistics after five rounds of EuroMillions Basketball, powered by Global Sports Analytics:

Kangoeroes Basket Mechelen:
PACE 79,4 (Ranked 10th)
After moving to their new hometown Mechelen, the Kangoeroes started off the season with a 2-3 record, with most recently a surprising home win over FILOU Oostende (90-74). So far, the team of Coach Vervaeck is playing the slowest pace of all teams in the league. Pace is measured as the number of possessions a team gathers during a game. Over recent years, it was powerhouse Oostende that succesfully played by far the slowest pace of all teams, which is often the consequence or organized half court basketball with a deliberate shot selection.

Hubo Limburg UnitedeFG% 55% (Ranked 2nd)
A team’s field goals percentage is of course an important key to success. Allthough a team that - in analogy of the recent evolutions in the NBA - takes a lot of three point attempts will typically have a lower %, but can still be more effective. Therefore, the “effective field goal percentage (eFG%)” takes into account that extra point for a made shot behind the arc. After 4 games, Limburg United is ranked 2nd (behind Mons) with an eFG% of 55%. Over the last couple of years, United was one of the fastest playing teams of the league, now it is yet to be seen which type of basketball new Coach Gibson wants to run with a complete new roster in Limburg.

Basic-Fit Brussels
OFFENSIVE REBOUND PERCENTAGE (OREB%) 34% (Ranked 1st)
After the “homecoming” of their former Coach Crevecoeur, Basic-Fit Brussels definitely hoped to gather more than 1 win in their first four games. However, one aspect of the game where they excell at this point is their pressure on the offensive glass. After 4 games Brussels grabbed the offensive rebound in 34% of all missed shots, giving them not only a lot of second chance points, but also slowing down the transition of the opponents. To turn their three single-digit defeats into victories, Brussels needs to be sharper on the defensive end (Ranked 9th).

Telenet Giants Antwerp
ASSIST RATIO (AR) 21,3% (Ranked 2nd)
Antwerp Giants has been focusing a lot on their European campaign, where they have been successful so far, making it to the Champions League and beating powerhouse Hapoel Jeruzalem at home. In the national league, Antwerp only won one of their 3 match-ups, with clear losses to direct opponents Charleroi and Oostende. The beauty of their type of game which they revealed mostly in Europe, is expressed in their Assist Ratio of 21,3%. This means that more than one out of five offensive possessions ends in an assist. Even despite the two losses, it ranks them 2nd in the EuroMillions League in this category.

Crelan Okapi Aalstar
TURNOVER RATIO (TR) 10,0%
The Turnover Ratio (TR) is the percentage of possessions that ends in a turnover. So far, Crelan Okapi Aalstar has taken best care of the ball, since in only 10% of the possessions they lost the ball without a shooting attempt. Unfortunately, this lack of turnovers is not immediately translated in more assists for the team (Ranked 8th in AR). Aalstar managed to secure 2 victories in the first 5 rounds of the championship in era where they have to rebuild after the departure of club icon John Tofi.

Belfius Mons-Hainaut
ASSIST OVER TURNOVER (AST/TO) 1,85 (Ranked 1st)
While Belfius Mons-Hainaut hasn't played yet one of the three big favorites for the title, they share the 1st spot in the ranking with a 4-1 record. The numbers prove that this is by no means by accident. In 5 (!) of the advanced stats categories that are introduced in this overview, Mons is ranked as best team of the League (i.e. eFG%, PPP, ORtg, AST/TO, AR)! On average, Mons gathers 1,85 assists for every turnover they commit. Without a doubt, this is an important key to why they are also ranked 1st in offensive efficiency (ORtg and PPP).

Stella Artois Leuven Bears
OFFENSIVE RATING (ORtg) 78,4 (Ranked 10th)
The lack of offensive efficiency seems to be the main reason for the last spot in the ranking (1-3 record) for Stella Artois Leuven Bears. In fact, the Bears have the 2nd best defense of the League (DRtg), but only score 78,4 points on 100 possessions, with a huge gap with the second worst team (Spirou Basket) with an ORtg of 92,0. After the recent retirement of Gaudoux, it is yet to be seen if Leuven can inject some extra offensive quality in their roster to improve their record.

VOO Liège Basket
DEFENSIVE RATING (DRtg) 106,2 (Ranked 10th)
VOO Liège Basket shows the exact mirror image of the Leuven Bears. Like last year, they seem to have found again enough offensive talent in their short rotation (Ranked 2nd in ORtg), but they struggle to make defensive stops on the other side of the court. In five games, they allowed on average 106,2 points by the opponent on 100 possessions, which makes them the weakest defensive team in Belgium (ranked 10th).

FILOU Oostende
POINTS PER POSESSION (PPP) 0,93 (Ranked 5th)
Despite a 4-1 record in the domestic league, FILOU Oostende cannot hide that they still are in a rebuilding phase. While over the last years they dominated the game on both ends of the floor, it is clear that they still are looking for automatisms in their setplays. On average they score 0,93 points out of a possession, which ranks them 5th in the league. It says a lot that Oostende does not appear in the Top 2 of any of the advanced stats presented here, while last year they overdominated the majority of these stats. However, no harm has been done yet, since they count only one defeat so far.
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Spirou Basket Charleroi
NET RATING 11,7 (Ranked 1st)
Last weekend, Spirou reinforced their ambitions for the title with a convincing win on the court of Telenet Giants Antwerp (80-95). While Coach Lynch has been known over the last seasons for his high pace basketball in high scoring games, the drastic change of personnel at Charleroi seems to result in a more solid defense too. After four games, Charleroi is ranked first in Net Rating, which is defined as the difference between the offensive and defensive rating (Net Rating = ORtg – DRtg), revealing the best mix between efficient offense and defense over 100 possessions.